Assignment 49 - Industrial Magazine Cover

This time, I didn't procrastinate. But I was a chicken. The assignment was to shoot the cover of an Industrial Magazine, using one of three subjects: People, Still Life, or Industrial Transportation. The house (mansion) next door is under construction, and there are several large construction vehicles in the front lawn. For three nights in a row, in perfect pre-sunset light, I contemplated walking over and taking some shots. However, risk averse Sarah thought better of it, and decided that getting arrested for trespassing was not the best plan, particularly five days before a business trip to India. [In fairness to myself, if the owner had been around, I would've asked permission and I absolutely would've shot those trucks. Just sayin']

Instead of potential public humiliation, I opted to do a still life of one of Doug's many power tools. I selected the compound sliding mitre saw mostly because I like saying "compound sliding mitre saw," with the obligatory Tim the Toolman grunt at the end. And it is infinitely cooler than a chop saw, which doesn't slide. But enough about power tools...this is a photography blog.

The brief said the tools were to look used, with patina. Doug managed to carry the saw from his workshop in the basement up two flights of stairs into the studio with the saw dust intact, which was quite a feat. I played around with various angles, but ended up with the channel in which the saw blade slides coming in at a slight diagonal from camera right, and the guide for the wood cutting in diagonally from the bottom left corner.

I set up the lights so the focus was on what made the tool unique - it chops down and slides along whatever angle you set. I put a softbox above and behind the blade, and used white cards to direct light on to the blade, the angle guide, and the sliding channel. The rest of the image was largely in shadow.

We were provided a magazine cover layout, so I quickly popped the image into the layout, played around with the color of the text, and called it a day! The result is below. [Grunt.]

Next week's images are for a Hair Salon. I don't have a lot of time to shoot, as I'm getting ready for our annual summer party and a trip to India a few days later, so I've already decided to go with some product shots. See you next week!